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Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Mono Audio, English, French, Subtitled
Get set for Big Trouble and double indemnity when Peter Falk (TV's "Columbo") and Alan Arkin (The In-Laws) reunite as a wacky pair of insurance swindlers. Beverly D'Angelo (American History X, Vegas Vacation) aids and abets the inspired lunacy in director John Cassavetes riotous farce. The trouble and the laughs start when insurance man Leonard Hoffman (Arkin) decides to send his three sons to Yale. To raise cash, Leonard gets drawn into a bizarre scheme by Steve Rickey (Falk) and his screwball wife Blanche (D'Angelo). But their plot to collect an "accidental" death policy gets sidetracked by a series of hilariously unforeseen twists. Can these unlikely allies pull off the sting before they get stung? Falk and Arkin pile up big laughs as they get deeper and deeper into Big Trouble!
"A classic farce...deliciously funny... A career high point for Falk and Arkin." Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Editor's Note
A troubled production history notwithstanding, BIG TROUBLE remains a lighthearted updating of the classic film noir DOUBLE INDEMNITY. Alan Arkin stars as Leonard Hoffman, an insurance salesman and father of triplets. When it becomes apparent that his dream of sending his three sons to Yale is financially impossible, opportunity presents itself in the form of Blanche (Beverly D'Angelo), sexy wife of Steve Rickey (Peter Falk), who convinces Leonard to trick her husband into signing an obscure life insurance plan that promises a huge payoff if he dies while falling from a train. After the mission is seemingly accomplished, Steve reappears, confusing matters, and thereby sending Leonard's life into an official tailspin. Director John Cassavetes's is credited as the director of BIG TROUBLE; he actually stepped in as a replacement. Although the film is therefore not a unique Cassavetes document, it manages to breeze along, guided by the performances of Falk (a Cassavetes standby) and Arkin, stars of 1979's THE IN-LAWS.
Plot Summary
In this spoof of classic film noir, an unassuming man (Alan Arkin) devises an elaborate insurance fraud scheme in order to raise the funds necessary to send his three sons to Yale. His plan involves collecting on an accidental death policy that mirrors the ploy from Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY. However, when it turns out that the joke has been played on him, he must find a way out of his seemingly hopeless predicament. BIG TROUBLE was directed by John Cassavetes as a gun-for-hire; Peter Falk and Beverly D'Angelo star as a not-so-happily-married couple.
| Features | Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation | | Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo | | Scene Selection | | Interactive Menus | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Columbia Tri-Star |
| Release Date: 7/22/2003 |
| Running Time: 93 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1986 | | Catalog ID: 10362 | | UPC: 00043396103627 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Available Subtitles: English, French | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Variety
"...Cassavetes did a creditable job directing his actors..." 06/04/1986Los Angeles Times
"...Deliciously funny....BIG TROUBLE is crisp, polished and handsome....As for Falk and Arkin, BIG TROUBLE represents a career high point for both of them..." 06/27/1986 p.C17 Uncut
"[A] bizarrely watchable spoof thriller, riffing on DOUBLE INDEMNITY..." 01/01/2004 p.143 |
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